TVLINE | Talk about how [series creator] Andrew [Marlowe] first presented it to you that he was going to “pull the trigger” on Beckett and Castle and make that finally happen.

I was vocal about the fact that I felt that they needed to get together, because in my perspective there’s only so far that you can go with that kind of romantic tension. There’s a point where either it happens, or you risk being dishonest and pulling on audience’s heartstrings or whatever just for the sake of maintaining that audience, or because people fear that when there is no tension in that way that you lose interest. I don’t really believe that, so I felt like if we prolonged that, it would just be unplayable, unbearable. So I was told a couple of episodes before the finale, and I knew that they were going to try to sprinkle in notes to justify that happening at the end of the finale. I’ve been for it for a while, so I thought it was about time.

TVLINE | What excited you about it, and what, if anything, gave you pause?

What excited me about it was that it’s a shift in the relationship for those two characters. Last year there was a rift between them, partially because they were both holding secrets….

TVLINE | All season long, yeah.

Right, and also I feel unless romantic tension is given a voice, the alternative is often expressed – “I can’t be around you, I don’t want to see you,” things like that. So I thought, “Oh, this will be neat, this will be a new thing to play, for both characters.” [For example], there’s nobody that Rick has ever played love with — love in the bedroom, love outside of the bedroom. I’m sure we’ll be in the honeymoon period for a little while and get to know who these people are in a relationship that’s secret from everyone else.

Castle and its monster ratings return Monday September 24th, 2012 at 10/9c only on ABC. The last season of Castle averaged a fantastic 12.18 million viewers! That ranks it the 22nd show on television. The Castle numbers have grown year-to-year in four straight seasons.